The present invention relates to furniture construction, and in particular to a modular seating arrangement for constructing armed, one armed, two armed, and multiseat chairs.
The use of standarized modules to fabricate various seating arrangements has long been recognized as an effective means to reduce the overall cost of furnishings, particularly for commercial seating, such as that used in offices, airports, train depots, and other similar establishments. In such modularized designs, the various parts of the seating, such as the end frames, cross braces, seats, and backs, are designed to be easily interconnected with other seating members, even when the seating parts are interconnected in a variety of different configurations. By reducing the number of parts necessary to fabricate a given number of seating arrangements, the production costs of the seating parts can be reduced, the inventory cost for new and repair parts is lowered, and the time, complexity and expense for assembly of the seating is typically decreased. Hence, a substantial savings can be realized if a single part can be used in more than one place on the same chair configuration, and/or in a variety of seating applications.
Although modularized seating is advantageous in reducing furniture costs, prior art modular seating has tended to present a tacked together look rather than a smooth, sleek, eye-appealing design. Such seating has employed protruding joints and couplings to interconnect the various parts, thereby producing a rather unattractive, obtrusive style, which is typically perceived as merely collection of "add-on" parts. Often, such seating comprises a plurality of seats perched on a rail, like birds on a telephone wire.
Typically, arm and armless versions of prior art modular seating require different and frames entirely on other different components to assemble. Alternatively, the arms are merely tacked onto the armless version and the appearance of the seating distinctly betrays this fact.